Saintfield House

THE PERCEVAL-PRICES OWNED 6,807 ACRES OF LAND IN COUNTY DOWN

NICHOLAS PRICE, of HOLLYMOUNT, near Downpatrick, County Down, wedded Catherine, daughter of James Hamilton, MP, and widow of Vere Essex Cromwell, 4th EARL OF ARDGLASS, by whom he had a son,

MAJOR-GENERAL NICHOLAS PRICE (c1665-1734), of Hollymount, MP for Downpatrick, 1692-3, County Down, 1695-1714, who married Dorcas, fourth daughter of Roger West, of The Rock, County Wicklow, and had issue,

JAMES, his heir;
Cromwell, of Hollymount; MP for Downpatrick, 1727-60;
NICHOLAS, succeeded his brother;
Sophia; Margaret; Anne. 

This distinguished soldier was a senior officer in CHARLES I's army, defended Londonderry ca 1692; changed the place-name from Tawnaghneeve to Saintfield; was half-brother of the Lady Elizabeth Cromwell; and leased Hollymount Demesne, 1695.

His eldest son,

JAMES PRICE, wedded Frances, natural daughter of the 1st Baron Herbert of Cherbury, and had issue, two daughters,

Catherine, m 1st J Savage, of Portaferry; and 2ndly, Very Rev E Baillie;
Dorcas, m Dr Whittle, of Lisburn.

Mr Price died without male issue, when the family estates devolved upon his brother,

NICHOLAS PRICE (c1700-42), of Saintfield, MP for Lisburn, 1736-42, who married firstly, Mary, daughter of Francis, 1st Baron Conway of Ragley, Warwickshire, and had issue, a son,

FRANCIS, his heir.

Mr Price espoused secondly, in 1732, Maria, daughter of Colonel the Hon Alexander Mackenzie, second son of 4th Earl of Seaforth, and had further issue.

He was succeeded by his son, 

FRANCIS PRICE (1728-91), of Saintfield, MP for Lisburn, 1759-76, High Sheriff of County Down, 1753, who espoused, in 1752, Charity, daughter of Mathew Forde, of Seaforde, County Down, and had issue,

NICHOLAS, his heir;
Christian Arabella; Harriet Jane; Mary.

Mr Price was succeeded by his son,

NICHOLAS PRICE JP DL (1754-1847), of Saintfield House, who married, in 1779, the Lady Sarah Pratt, daughter of Charles, 1st Earl Camden, and had issue, an only daughter,

MISS ELIZABETH ANNE PRICE (1780-1867), who wedded, in 1804, James Blackwood, of Strangford, County Down (a descendant of BLACKWOOD of Clandeboye), who assumed, 1847, the name and arms of PRICE,  and had issue,

Nicholas, 1805-19;
JAMES CHARLES, of whom presently;
William Robert Arthur;
Richard;
Sarah; Mary Georgiana; Sarah Elizabeth; Elizabeth Catherine.

The grandson of Nicholas Price,

JAMES CHARLES PRICE JP DL (1807-94), of Saintfield House, High Sheriff of County Down, 1859, married, in 1840, Anne Margaret, eldest daughter of Patrick Savage, of Portaferry, and had issue,

Nicholas, 1842-89;
JAMES NUGENT, of whom hereafter;
William Charles, died in infancy;
Francis William;
Harriet Anna; Elizabeth Dorcas; Catherine Anne.

Mr Price was succeeded by his eldest surviving son,

JAMES NUGENT BLACKWOOD-PRICE JP DL (1844-1927), of Saintfield House, High Sheriff of County Down, 1902, who wedded, in 1869, Alice Louisa, daughter of William Robert Ward, and had issue,

Conway William, b 1872;
Edward Hyde (Rev), b 1875;
ETHELWYN MARY, of whom hereafter.

Mr Blackwood-Price's only daughter,

MISS ETHELWYN MARY BLACKWOOD-PRICE (1871-1933), married, in 1901, Richard Douglas Perceval, of Downpatrick, and had issue,

Richard John Perceval-Price, b 1902;
Michael Charles Perceval-Price, Lt-Col, MC JP DL (1907-2002); High Sheriff, 1951.

SAINTFIELD HOUSE, near Saintfield, County Down, was built ca 1750 by Francis Price.

It is a double gable-ended house of three storeys over a basement.

It has a five-bay front and a three-bay rear.

The house had single storey three-bay wings which ended in two-storey two-bay pavilions with high pyramidal roofs and central chimneys.

One of these has been demolished.

To the west of the house is a large stable-block.

It has been greatly modified but retains a small bell-cot, with bell, over the gateway.

Beside it is a tall cylindrical brick water-tower which is now in need of repair.

This largely walled demesne in drumlin country, approximately one mile north of Saintfield, dates from 1709, when the property was purchased by Nicholas Price of Hollymount.

The site of the original house has not been established, but it most probably lay close to the present stables & farmyard, parts of which belong to this period.

After Francis Price, MP for Lisburn, succeeded his father to the property in 1742, he built the present mansion, a tall five-bay gable-ended double pile house of three storeys over a basement.

The flanking wings, which incorporated high pyramidal roofs, were added by his son Nicholas, former Black Rod in the Irish Parliament, after he sold the family's Dublin residence ca 1800.

The interior has been altered at various times, with the hall being given a ceiling of Adamesque plasterwork ca 1900.

Little trace of the early and mid-18th century formal landscape survives, though some of the woodland planting doubtless has its origin in this period.

The core of the present informal landscape park was created by Nicholas Price from the 1760s, with most of the work probably taking place in the years after his marriage to the Lady Sarah Pratt in 1779.

This landscape process involved building an extensive demesne wall, closing public roads, putting down new winding carriage drives, building a ha-ha in front of the house and making a small lake with island in a glen to the south.

Once used as a fish-pond, this lake was created by damming a stream where it emerged from a marshy hollow.

New woodland blocks were planted, including perimeter belts and screens, and many of the original stone-faced banks built to protect these survive.

To the south, beyond the glen, an oval hillock was specially adapted for training and racing horses.

The large walled garden, located south of yard, was probably built ca 1760-80, but assumed its present form, being divided into three parts, in the 1840s.

The glasshouses, no longer extant, lay against the south facing north wall (by the yard) and overlooked an ornamental garden with curved southern stone wall (lined with brick on south side).

The two enclosed, walled areas to the south were devoted to kitchen and cold frames (in the south- east corner).

The parkland area immediately around the house had largely assumed its present appearance by the time "insurgents" occupied the place for three days in June, 1798.

After the Union, possibly around 1810, gate lodges were built at the town gate and the west gate, the latter being placed opposite the entrance; both lodges, which have been sold, are in a Regency-Gothic style with hipped roofs, distinctive canted bays and naive, Y-tracery lancet windows; both may be the work of George Dance, the Younger.

In 1847, a new Saintfield-Belfast road was laid down on the east side of the demesne and this work was followed by additional landscaping on the east side of the park.

This included the planting of a large woodland block, laying down a new main avenue approach though this wood and building a highly ornate Tudor-Picturesque-style gate lodge, possibly designed by James Sands, since demolished.

A more modest gate lodge, now sold, was also built facing the new road on the north side of the demesne, giving access to the kennels and yard.

Venerable trees were lost and damage caused to the woods by the Big Wind of January, 1839.

During later Victorian times, exotics were planted in the pleasure grounds to the south of the house and some of these survive.

The demesne woodlands are managed, rhododendron ponticum is being cleared and trees planted.

First published in July, 2010.